In the sport of baseball or softball, bunting is a special skill that is difficult to master. Even at the professional level, full time coaching staffs have been known to rely on an outside bunting specialist to teach bunting skills during spring training.
Bunting requires a degree of hand-eye coordination that is comparable to (and possibly even exceeds that) of hitting a baseball or softball. A bunt is most often used to advance a base runner by placing a (bunted) ball with a dampened velocity along one of the base lines. The low velocity in combination with the deliberate placement causes the ball to linger within the infield a maximum distance away from the fielders who are responsible for fielding it. The fielders must therefore run a significant distance in order to field the ball which gives the base runner sufficient time to safely reach the next base.
As observed in FIG. 1A, according to one technique, bunting involves a correctly positioned batter stabbing downward at the ball toward one of the base lines. The downward motion of the bat causes the ball to hit the ground at a steep angle which dampens the speed of the ball. In order to successfully bunt the ball (in either the manner described above or an alternative manner), ideally, the ball first makes contact with the bat within a window (hereinafter the “bunt window”) on the bat surface. As observed in FIGS. 1B and 1C the window 101 is centered approximately: 1) along the length axis (y) of the bat, off the tip end of the bat within the “meat” end of the bat; and, 2) along the width axis (χ) of the bat surface facing the field of play, in the middle of the bat. The precision at which the batter attempts to place the bat is apparent from FIG. 1C. Here, even if the batter is successful at the lengthwise placement of the bat such that the ball hits the “meat” of the bat, if the batter places the bat too high, the ball will strike the ground at too sharp an angle 102 (which would effectively stop the ball rather than dampen its speed), or, if the batter places the bat too low, the ball will project upward 103 for an easy fly-out (that fails to advance the runner). Placing the bat such that the ball strikes the bunting window causes the ball to strike the ground at, for example, appropriate angles 101A and/or 101B.